This invention relates to systems for dispensing flowable food material upon a container moving on a conveyor beneath a dispenser of the flowable food material. It relates particularly to such systems in which it is important to limit the dispensing of the material to predetermined parts of the container.
An example of the latter type of system, with respect to which the present invention will be described with particularity, is one which dispenses flowable food materials such as sauces or gravies upon particular portions of food on plates passing beneath the dispenser. For example, the containers may be plates having food portions on them which are destined to be frozen to provide frozen dinners; in one example the plate may contain a meat portion on one half of the receiving surface of the plate, on which sauce is to be dispensed. In such case it is possible, by conventional means, to provide a dispenser above the plate which will be turned on once during each passage of a plate below it to dispense sauce upon a major part of the meat portion. However, unless the plate is stopped beneath the dispenser, the conventional dispenser cannot cover the meat portion uniformly and completely with the sauce without depositing sauce beyond the meat portion, for example on the rim of the plate, beyond the plate, or on other food portions on the plates, as examples. Also, for reasons which will be clear to one skilled in the art, it is undesirable in many cases to have to move the plates in an intermittent, stop-go manner, and instead it is greatly preferred to permit the train of plates to move continuously under the dispenser while still achieving precise dispensing only upon the desired areas of the plates.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide precise dispensing of a flowable food material upon a predetermined moving area having non-uniform dimensions in directions normal to the direction of motion of said area.
It is also an object to provide the desired accurate coverage of the predetermined area upon which the flowable material is to be dispensed by means which are easy to make, use and maintain, which are reliable in operation, and which can readily be adapted to deposit the flowable material upon various different sizes and shapes of areas of the container.